Polyphaga

Taxobox
name = Polyphaga

---

image_width = 250px
image_caption = Milkweed beetle, "Tetraopes tetrophthalmus"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Coleoptera
subordo = Polyphaga
subordo_authority = Emery, 1886
subdivision_ranks = Infraorders
subdivision =
Bostrichiformia
Cucujiformia
Elateriformia
Scarabaeiformia
Staphyliniformia

Polyphaga is the largest and most diverse suborder of beetles. Polyphaga comprises 144 families in 16 superfamilies, and displays an enormous variety of specialization and adaptation, with over 300,000 described species, or approximately 90% of the beetle species so far discovered.

Classification

There are 5 infraorders:

* Bostrichiformia — including furniture beetles and skin beetles.
* Cucujiformia — includes lady beetles, longhorn beetles, weevils and leaf beetles.
* Elateriformia — includes click beetles
* Scarabaeiformia — includes scarab beetles and stag beetles.
* Staphyliniformia — includes rove beetles and water beetles.

The internal classification of Polyphaga involves several superfamilies or series, whose constituents are relatively stable, although some smaller families (whose rank even is disputed) are allocated to different clades by different authors. Large superfamilies include Hydrophiloidea, Staphylinoidea, Scarabaeoidea, Buprestoidea, Byrrhoidea, Elateroidea, and Bostrichoidea.

The infraorder Cucujiformia includes the vast majority of phytophagous (plant-eating) beetles, united by cryptonephric Malpighian tubules of the normal type, a cone ommatidium with open rhabdom, and lack of functional spiracles on the eighth abdominal segment. Constituent superfamilies of Cucujiformia are Cleroidea, Cucujoidea, Tenebrionoidea, Chrysomeloidea, and Curculionoidea. Evidently adoption of a phytophagous lifestyle correlates with taxon diversity in beetles, with Cucujiformia, especially weevils (Curculionoidea), forming a major radiation.

References

* Peter S. Cranston and Penny J. Gullan, University of California,"Phylogeny of Insects", page 893.

External links

* [http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/gullanandcranstonlab/Gullanpdfs/phylogenychapter.pdf Phylogeny of Insects]
* [http://www.kbinirsnb.be/collections/entomo/staphy/ Site devoted to Staphyliniformia]
* [http://www.fieldmuseum.org/peet_staph/project_sum.html Project devoted to studying rove beetles]
* [http://www.insects.org/entophiles/coleoptera/cole_en005.html Image of a click beetle]
* [http://maria.fremlin.de/stagbeetles/ site devoted to stag beetles]
* [http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/longhorned_beetle/ news article highlighting the damage caused by Longhorn beetles]